AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry's staff knew as early as June 2005 that two administrators at a Texas Youth Commission facility were not being prosecuted after being accused of sexually abusing youths in their custody, according to records obtained Tuesday by the San Antonio Express-News.

Perry's aides have said the commission notified them of the initial investigation in February 2005 and that they thought the case was being pursued by prosecutors until they were told otherwise in October 2006 by an aide to state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.

Also, other records show Perry's office routinely sent complaints from parents about their children's treatment in TYC facilities to the agency for self-investigation.

Perry and other state leaders have expressed outrage that a Ward County prosecutor allowed sexual abuse allegations against two West Texas State School administrators to languish for two years without prosecution.

But an e-mail obtained under the open records law shows a commission administrator told a Perry criminal justice staff member in June 2005 that the case was not under prosecution.

In that e-mail, dated June 13, 2005, Perry staff member Alfonso Royal asked TYC Chief of Staff Joy Anderson, "What is going on in the West Texas investigation?"

Anderson replied 18 minutes later: "Both the assistant superintendent and the principal resigned in lieu of termination. We aren't aware of any pending criminal charges."

Perry spokesman Ted Royer said Tuesday that in June 2005 no one in the governor's office would have believed the prosecutor would sit on the case for 18 more months.

"From the communication we received, there was no reason to believe that due process was not moving forward as it should have," the spokesman said.

Turner's chief of staff, Alison Brock, said she contacted Royal after learning about the West Texas case because she thought he would pursue it. Brock on Tuesday said Royal told her he was unaware of the West Texas case when she called.

Royal at that point started calling the Texas Ranger who investigated the case, the Ward County district attorney and the state attorney general's office. He got the prosecutor to ask the attorney general's office to prosecute the case Jan. 17.

The attorney general's office today will present its case to a grand jury in Monahans.

Perry did not designate a cleanup of the problems at the TYC until after news reports of sexual and physical abuse in the system started appearing Feb. 18. Perry has blamed Ward County District Attorney Randall Reynolds for not prosecuting the cases.

Perry also has defended the TYC board, which resigned Friday. Under pressure from the Legislature, Perry named Jay Kimbrough as a special master to oversee changes to the troubled youth corrections system.

Two senior agency executives — Deputy Director Linda Reyes and General Counsel Neil Nichols — resigned Tuesday.

Under the Texas Public Information Act, the Express-News requested all documents related to abuse at commission facilities and sent to the governor's office since Sept. 1, 2000, along with e-mails the commission sent to state leaders about the investigation at the West Texas State School, in Pyote.

On Feb. 24, 2005, Anderson sent an e-mail to Royal and staff members for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick and Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, notifying them of the initial investigation of one administrator.

Other correspondence released by the governor's office showed that at least 33 parents, two students and two staff members had written to Perry between 2000 and 2007 to complain about physical abuse or conditions at TYC facilities.

The letters were forwarded to the commission for investigation. Senior agency executives wrote the parents conciliatory letters downplaying problems with their children.

Royer, Perry's spokesman, said the governor's office had to rely on the agency to respond to the complaints.

He said that as far as the governor's office knew, the complaints were handled appropriately.